Red's Dance
by cleareyes25
Summary: Akane is starting a new life. However, it's not all rainbows and ponies. The only family she has remaining is in jail and doesn't even know she exists.
1. Chapter 1

Her brothers were out of reach. One was in jail and the other was dead. It didn't matter, anyway. They didn't even know she existed. Yet. Akane's mother was terrified when she found out she was pregnant with a third child. At least, that's what Akane hoped. It was easier to justify what she did next that way.

Uchiha Mikoto was involved in one of the greatest scandals of all time topped only by her own son and one of her ancestors. Her husband was the head of the clan and was planning a coup that would destroy the village they were supposedly loyal to and, hopefully, put the Uchiha clan back on top of the world. Her son, Itachi, was the key player in this mutiny, but he defected when he massacred the entire clan leaving only his little brother as the sole survivor. Or so he thought.

When Itachi was almost six and Sasuke not even one, yet, Mikoto realized that she was pregnant. Her husband was too busy with running the police corps as well as training his genius son and overthrowing the village to notice her change. When she was four months pregnant she accepted a six month mission, despite her being retired, to an ally country as a delegate for the Leaf Village. At this point Sasuke had turned one year old.

The mission was a simple office and meeting mission, perfect for a woman in her condition. The country was small and basically insignificant in the eyes of the world. She was to help with their economy and act as a liaison between it and her home village. She gave birth just four months later to a healthy baby girl and immediately gave her away. She came home early from her mission claiming that the small country had established a stable trade system to help along with their poverty.

Uchiha Akane was the product of the mission, the true mission of Uchiha Mikoto. The girl grew up in an orphanage for a few short years before turning onto the streets with a group of other orphaned children. They lived well enough. Some of the older children passed down what knowledge they had about jutsus and such to the younger generation, aiding in their survival.

"Hurry up Daisuke! Its rush hour and we can't miss it again. Ai will kill us if we do!" A flicker of a shadow swept passed the wooden buildings. Seagulls were spiraling around a town center as swarms of people pulsed through the streets. A small boy stumbled as he tried to catch up with the dark haired girl.

"Akane! You have longer legs than I do. Slow down! Akane!" The girl barked out laughter as she pivoted on her foot, not losing any speed, and gave the ten year old a mischievous grin.

"Aww, is poor little Daisuke a shrimpy-wimpy?" The boy's face scrunched up as he launched himself forward, attempting to tackle the sixteen-year-old to the ground. He missed and fell flat on his face. The girl skid to a stop as she doubled over laughing. The boy huffed as he dusted himself off and brushed past the girl.

"C'mon, let's get going." He grumbled. Akane sighed and threw an arm over his shoulders.

"Tsk, Tsk, Daisuke. You need to loosen up a little." She grinned at him as he shook his head in exasperation.

They reached the swarm of people and Akane quickly got into position as Daisuke melted in the background. A flash of red peered from under her shaggy bangs as she moved her body into graceful patterns. A crowd of people gathered around her, trapped in a trance as the teenager worked her magic. The fluid movements of her arms, hands, and hips drew them in. The spark in her eyes, was that real fire in them?, ensnared the innocent people. A flash of light blue darted in between the tourists lightly relieving them of their valuables.

"Man, Akane, look at all of this loot! Ai will have nothing to complain about now!" The blue haired boy laughed light-heartedly. Akane gave a soft smile as she ruffled his hair.

"Come on, let's go home."

"Took the words right out of my mouth." The pair froze at the strange voice. Black eyes darted quickly down at their young charge before taking in the busty woman in front of them.

"Daisuke, go get Ai." Akane quickly whispered not looking away from the blonde-haired woman. The boy scrambled off while casting fearful glances behind him.

"Uchiha Akane… I've been looking for you for a long time." The young girl's body tensed as she turned slightly towards an alleyway off to her side. The woman's brown eyes flickered at this.

"Don't make this difficult, I have more important things to be doing than play hide-n-seek with a child." Akane smirked.

"There won't be much seeking if we play that game. What do you want?" Her eyes flashed read for a moment in warning. "Don't bother lying to me, either."

The woman sighed, "I am Tsunade, fifth Hokage of Konohagakure. Where your mother is from…" Akane's fists shook slightly at the knowledge the woman seemed to possess.

"How do you know about me? The caretaker at the orphanage said that even my own father didn't know I was conceived." She sneered. The woman's eyes hardened.

"I know a lot of things. It doesn't matter how I know, just that I do and how I use such knowledge. Akane, do you really think this is the life that your mother pictured for you? Using your kekkai genkai as a hat trick to steal from the innocent? Come with me and become a shinobi." The patter of running feet reached Akane's ears. She tentatively opened her chakra channels and reached her senses out to the woman in front of her. Her eyes widened at what she found.

The footsteps were getting closer. She could now distinguish a set of lighter footsteps trailing behind the heavy ones. A chill like cold water swept through her veins. She focused on the woman before her. Her eyes were hard but only in stubbornness and determination, not in anger or hatred. Akane had heard of Tsunade. She knew of her monstrous strength that could level a mountain. She also knew of her generosity and leniency to her brother, even after everything he had done.

Panting emerged from the alleyway she had been facing as a tall woman with a scarred face raced down it. Akane saw a flash of blue hair hiding behind Ai and sighed. She faced Tsunade squarely and nodded, her jaw and fists clenched tightly. Tsunade turned away from her with a small smile and walked out of the small town. Akane followed her.

"Akane!" She didn't look back at the woman that had helped her survive, nor at the little boy that looked up to her.


	2. Chapter 2

The village was situated in a crater. In the middle was a park with a small lake. Streets spiraled up from it and spidered outwards into intricate patterns that really weren't patterns but a twisted knot. Akane's eyes tried to trace a path to the park from the gates but they kept getting distracted by the different types of people in the giant village. There were merchants yelling about their fares, children screaming with laughter as they weaved through disgruntled shoppers, and shinobi jumping from rooftop to rooftop.

The guards at the gate stood at attention as Tsunade walked by. Akane glanced back in bewilderment at the show of respect only to find the guards staring curiously back at her. She whipped her head back to front and quickened her steps to catch up with the powerful woman leading her.

"Um… Where exactly are we going?" Tsunade looked down at her and opened her mouth to say something, but was distracted by an orange blur rushing towards the pair.

"BAA-CHAN!" The blur launched itself at the Hokage who just stood there calmly. At the last second she held up a hand, palm outwards, which collided with a hitai-ate and repelled the blur into the wall of a store effectively cracking it. A shop owner came scurrying out and started screeching and gesturing wildly at his poor wall.

Tsunade sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose as a vein popped out. The orange blur, which Akane could now see was a young man with yellow hair and bright blue eyes, jumped up and stomped over to the Hokage.

"Baa-chan! How could you just leave in the middle of my training? When I become Hokage I am going to need to know all of the ropes! Not to mention become stronger and…."

"Na-ru-to…" Tsunade growled out each syllable and glared up into the boy's eyes. His face visibly blanched and he gulped. He put up his hands in a gesture of no-harm and started to back away slowly.

"Ne, ne, there's no reason this should get violent, right? I mean, you wouldn't hurt the hero of the shinobi world, would you?" Akane's eyes widened.

"Oh. My. Gosh. You're Uzumaki Naruto!" It wasn't a question as Akane stepped up close to Naruto. She picked up an arm and felt the muscles there before proceeding to poke him in various placed while mumbling to herself. She finally stood up straight before him and lifted a hand to measure their difference in height.

"I thought you'd be taller or at least more buff." She grumbled before retreating behind Tsunade as Naruto started screeching at the young girl.

"Oi! Don't just make assumptions like that! I am plenty buff and tall! I-….Uhh.." Naruto looked around for the pair of women who were just in front of him a second ago.

"Sakura, she will be your charge until she becomes an official chuunin or unless I tell you otherwise, understood?" Tsunade looked at the medic over her intertwined fingers. The pink haired girl fidgeted slightly and her brow furrowed.

"Tsunade-sama, excuse me for saying so, but wouldn't Shizune-san be a more fit choice? She is older and much more experienced than I. She would-"

"Sakura, I chose you for a reason. Think of this as practice for when you have your own genin team." The young girl still looked doubtful as she bowed in acceptance. The black haired girl twisted her hands together. She gets nervous around strangers. Just the thought that this girl who was only a year her senior would be teaching and judging her put her nerves into a frenzy.

"Also, her heritage is top secret and highly sensitive. Certain people should not be made aware of her existence, Sakura, be sure that they are not."

"Hai!" Sakura walked briskly out of the office. Tsunade looked expectantly at Akane and when she didn't move she gestured toward the door.

"Oh! Wait, Sakura-sama!" Akane jolted toward the door as she ran to catch up with the pink-haired beauty.

"Show me what you've got." Sakura had led Akane to the training grounds outside of the village walls. She hadn't looked at her the entire way and Akane was beginning to think that her new teacher didn't like her. Right now, the medic was in a defensive stance as she stared at Akane for perhaps the first time.

"Wha-What?" Sakura didn't say anything but strengthen her stance. Akane nervously shuffled her feet as she moved to stand directly in front of the woman. She tried to look Sakura in the eyes but Sakura kept them pointedly off to the side slightly. Akane sighed as she realized that Sakura was probably already briefed about her Sharingan.

She took in a deep breath and closed her eyes. No point in keeping them open then, right? She opened up her chakra system and let it flow. Her hearing sharpened as strength poured into her veins.

Sakura's breath hitched slightly at the speed of which the younger girl formed her hand signs. She had to take this exercise seriously if she didn't want to get injured. This girl was not inexperienced. Her eyes widened as the girl brought her thumb up to her lips and bit down slightly. Sakura pushed backwards as a puff of smoke filled the clearing.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" The smoke cleared to reveal…. nothing. Sakura's ears hummed from the explosion as her eyes scanned the area for some difference. She quickly refocused on the girl only discovered that she had disappeared. In fact, the entire clearing had changed. A lone swing set sat in the middle of a field of wildflowers. Sakura took a step forward in confusion. A flock of butterflies burst from the flowers as a wind that smelled of the sea rippled through them. The crash of waves reached Sakura's ears and she shook her head and tried to focus on her chakra.

When had she cast the genjutsu? Sakura had made sure to not look anywhere near the girl's eyes and she hadn't noticed any weird hand gestures beside the hand signs. Sakura's eyes snapped open at the thought. Whatever was going on right now had to do with the jutsu the girl just cast. But, it was a summoning jutsu, wasn't it? Sakura looked around curiously at the detailed scenery. It couldn't be a genjutsu… Maybe the girl had reversed summoned them. The humming was becoming distracting as Sakura tried to figure out a way back to Konoha. Wait a minute…

It wasn't a reverse summons. The girl had summoned something and that something had cast the genjutsu using sound. Sakura figured the summoned creature would be within the genjutsu and she proceeded to follow the sound of the waves. She already had an idea as to what the creature was. This girl was full of surprises.

Akane panted as she fell on her butt. That's it, she couldn't get back up. The woman in front of her looked like she hadn't even broken a sweat. Akane groaned as she flopped backwards and stared up at the clouds.

"How did you break free of Paikea-sama's spell?" She gasped out. Sakura chuckled as she sat next to the young girl.

"I asked politely." Akane groaned again as she brought her hands up to hide her blush. "You should work on your relationship with your summons. It could mean life or death in a battle. We should also work on your range of jutsu. It seems as though you have an affiliation with wind chakra. Naruto could help you with that. He, also, has summons that cast genjutsu using sound." Akane brought her hands up from her face and looked at them.

"… What will you teach me?" She asked quietly. Sakura looked startled for a moment and glanced down at the girl. Akane saw pain shoot through her eyes before she averted them and her heart plummeted. Tsunade had told her of Sakura's relationship with her brother and warned her about how she may react to his long lost sister. She had been hoping she wouldn't care, but after this event she could tell that Sakura was struggling to cope. She pasted on a smile and stood up to stretch.

"Ne, ne, don't worry about it. I'm sure you have lots to teach me. If you will excuse me, sensei, I need to speak with Tsunade-sama about my living arrangements." She started to walk back to the village.

"Wait, Akane." She looked back to see Sakura brushing herself off. "Tsunade informed me that we are to live together. Come on, I'll show you to the apartment." She walked past the stunned girl who quickly shook herself and followed.


End file.
